122 3.34 Panic - Part 2

"Oh boy, this doesn't look good," Zagan said after he saw the form that condensed miasma took.

The black orb of miasma turned into a humanoid being with a goat's head. Large black wings grew on its back, and a red pentagram appeared in its chest.

"Do you know who that is?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's Satan, the strongest demon after the demon lord himself."

"Sounds like trouble. Can we beat him?"

"I don't think we can. Send the horse back and tell everyone to evacuate right now. The two of us can delay him and run once they evacuate. If they stay here, they will only end up as casualties."

The way he was talking made me lose what little confidence I had left in me. But right now, I couldn't afford to panic.

"Yoru, please tell everyone to evacuate. Break the city wall behind the academy and move out. Also…"

I went inside the house and carried Goro, who was lying on the floor, outside.

"Please take him with you."

If things get worse, the two of us could just evacuate into Zagan's space. But even for him, it was impossible to take a whole city there.

After Yoru left, the two of us prepared ourselves to face Satan. The right course of action here would be to find a way to buy time. If we were successful at that then this would be no less than a victory.

Though, deep down I feared that this plan might fail. Even if we were able to escape, there was always a chance that he would chase us.

"ARRAAH!"

Satan looked towards the sky and unleashed a cry loud enough to shake the very ground.

"Is that you lucifer?"

It looked like he was able to sense Zagan's presence. And somehow, his presence was making him even angrier than he already was.

"Yeah, it's me. Though I have a new name and master now."

Satan looked at Zagan. "How dare you show yourself in front of me, you traitor!"

"I didn't betray anyone. I warned you all about what was going on, but you were too dumb to listen to me."

"We would have won! If you hadn't betrayed us, we would have won!"

"No, we lost the day we started using our own men as tools. Even if we had won, we wouldn't have gotten the peace that we fought for."

"You have no right to speak traitor! You caused the destruction of our race, stop making excuses… I don't know who revived me. But whoever did, gave me an opportunity to quell some of the agony burning with me."

After saying that, Satan disappeared from where he was and appeared right in front of Zagan.

"Now die!"

After saying that, he kicked Zagan in his gut and sent him flying towards the city wall. The force used in the attack was so great that he broke the city wall and landed in the plains outside the city.

"Boy, I will spare your life. Go and bring all those human souls out there."

"No, I would choose to die once more instead."

I attacked him with Fire arrows, but they had no effect on him. And when I realized it's no use, I charged towards him prepared to die.

He just stood there as if my existence didn't even matter. I was angry, I was frustrated, but more than that, I feared that those dear to me were next if I fell right here and now.

At that moment, it felt like the time itself slowed down as the thoughts started coming to me.

'Unlike last time, if I die now, I will die with thousands of regrets. Compared to my lonely life back then, I have so many things precious to me in this life. Why is this happening to me? Why can't I just live a peaceful life somewhere?'

'Master, you deserve your share of happiness. And I am here to make sure that happens.'

I could hear Flare's thoughts from within me, and right when I was wondering what she was trying to do, I felt a burst of power from within me.

The color of my Flame cloak and crown changed blue, and her flames felt stronger than ever.

If her golden flames were the flames of creation, these blue flames felt like the flames of destruction. The flames that exist to burn the very existence.

When I reached in front of him, I covered my right foot in blue flames and attacked him with a high kick.

He blocked my attack using his forearm, but it looked like Flare's blue flames were burning him.

"Is this all you can do?" 

After saying that, he coughed my feet and slammed me on the ground.

I protected myself by using my cloak to reduce the impact, but despite that, I took some damage. The fall ended up creating a small crater on the ground.

"You said you choose death, right? Let me give you what you want."

I had barely managed to stand up when he came flying toward me and attacked me with his horns. I had no time to dodge it, so my only option here was to block it with everything that I could muster.

I covered both my hands and Flame and tried blocking his attack, but the force was too much for me.

I fell on my knees, but it looked like the flames were indeed burning him because he backed down as soon as he touched them.

"With all the miasma here and the miasma within me, my injuries will heal instantly. You are foolish if you think we are on equal footing here."

I wasn't able to focus on purifying the miasma while fighting. But without purifying the miasma, there was no way that I would be able to beat him.

As I was thinking of a way to get out of this situation, Zagan contracted me telepathically.

[Hey kid, I will try absorbing the remaining miasma of the city with me. He already has the most of it, so this won't change much. But with that, we might be able to draw this a bit longer and evacuate.]

: Fall of the city